The Young Indian Attack

The final, seventh round of the FTX Crypto Cup chess tournament, which took place in Miami for a week, turned into a loud sensation. In it, the brightest star of world chess, Magnus Carlsen, looked confident at first, but in a tie-break he was defeated by a 17-year-old prodigy from India, Rameshbabu Pragnanandhi. This is the third time this year that a talented teenager managed to defeat the reigning world champion.

The FTX Crypto Cup rapid chess tournament, which was the next stage of Magnus Carlsen’s large online series, ended with a victory for its initiator. In the table, the reigning world champion managed to keep the first place after seven rounds, although the final match – against 17-year-old Rameshbabu Pragnanandhi – sensationally lost. Carlsen, who played in his usual manner, that is, boldly and sometimes aggressively, lost to an opponent who looked even more boldly and aggressively in a tie-break. There Pragnanandha, rapaciously chasing the Norwegian and working with incredible precision, won both blitz games.

In this news, as it may seem at first glance, there is nothing special. The form of the Norwegian, who a month ago refused to defend the championship title in a match with the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, is now far from ideal. Carlsen, for example, played the fifth round of the FTX Crypto Cup quite badly. He made the most ridiculous mistakes, for which he could not find an explanation, in the games with one of the main outsiders of the tournament, the Pole Jan-Krzysztof Duda. “I have no idea what went wrong, I just couldn’t think, and in most cases I moved pieces to random cells,” he said.

However, two circumstances add weight to this news. The first is connected with the figure of 17-year-old Rameshbabu Pragnanandhi. The Indian chess player, who received grandmaster status at the age of 12 years and 10 months, has long been dubbed a chess prodigy. And the 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik, describing the Indian player, even called him a grandmaster with great talent and no weaknesses, capable of becoming the owner of the chess crown.

This summer, Pragnanandha, as part of the second Indian team (India, as the host of the tournament, fielded three teams), took bronze at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai, thus beating not only the Norwegian team led by Magnus Carlsen or the more experienced first Indian team, but also the American team, which consisted of exclusively from the stars – Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian. Pragnanandha, who missed two rounds, scored five victories, drew three games and suffered only one defeat.

Another circumstance lies in the background of the confrontation between Rameshbabu Pragnanandha and Magnus Carlsen. The fact is that the victory over the world champion at the FTX Crypto Cup tournament is already the third in the asset of the Indian for the current year. Pragnanandh was in the spotlight in February, right after he defeated Magnus Carlsen for the first time at the Airthings Masters online tournament as a 16-year-old. The super junior, playing black, forced Carlsen to capitulate on the 39th move. In the spring, Pragnanandha managed to repeat his success in another online rapid chess tournament – Chessable Masters.

Immediately after the Indian teenager won for the third time, one of his compatriots tweeted that chess was becoming “the new cricket”. In this sport, the Indian team has long been one of the leaders, and he himself enjoys incredible popularity in the country. “Prove me I’m wrong,” the tweet said. The answer to this challenge was none other than Magnus Carlsen. He preferred to pretend he didn’t understand what it was about. For a cricket match, the Norwegian wrote, 22 people (two teams of 11 each) are needed, as well as a bat with a ball and a field, while only two people play chess using a board and pieces. “And I don’t know how to play cricket,” concluded the world champion.

Ekaterina Remizova